The Observer, Volume L, Issue 22, 3/22/19

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the

Case Western Reserve University volume L, issue 22 friday, 3/22/2019

Observer

See where CWRU ranks 2020 U.S. News & World Report graduate, professional school rankings released

Students build clean water pipeline

Katharine Toledo Staff Reporter

On March 12, U.S. News & World Report, on their site referred to as “the global authority in education rankings,” released their 2020 rankings for Graduate and Professional Schools across the United States. The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School remained 9th for social work programs across the country. “The school has been a leader in social work education for over 100 years. The ranking is a testament to the consistently high quality of our degree program, the scholarship of the faculty, and the excellent work done by our alumni across the nation,” said Grover C. Gilmore, the dean of the Mandel School. He cited a social work minor and study abroad courses that opened up opportunities for undergraduates to work with the faculty. The medical school was ranked as the 24th best research medical school nationwide. Previously, they had been ranked at 25th for the past three years. “This honor further confirms our school as innovators in medical education, leaders in life-saving biomedical research and a force for improving health in our community,” said Dean Pamela B. Davis of the medical school. When discussing the upcoming shifts in the medical school, Davis stated, “This

spring, as our university program moves into the Health Education Campus together with our Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine program and Case Western Reserve’s nursing and dental schools, we will be in an even better position to extend our national leadership in interprofessional education.” Dean Venkataramanan Balakrishnan of the Case School of Engineering, which dropped from 50th to 52nd this year, said, “It’s important to note that while our ranking did slip a few spots— which is certainly disappointing—our overall score actually went up. And our peer-assessment score—which reflects our reputation among other top engineering schools—also increased. The U.S. News methodology is complex, and while the end result this year was not what we’d hoped for, the increases in these areas are encouraging. We have several initiatives in the works to enhance our research enterprise and we are optimistic that this will help boost our rankings in the next few years.” The law school fell six spots from last year, placing them at 71st. Breaking down how U.S. News and World Report ranks the schools, the co-deans of the law school, Jessica Berg and Michael Scharf pointed out that the ranking was unclear and inconsistent. First, there was no school ranked at 65th this year, the School of Law’s previous rank, but rather a group ranked at 67th and then

another group ranked at 71st. The deans said, “Our movement seems to be the result of a couple of schools moving up in the rankings and shifting things around us.” Second, they pointed out that the Bar exam pass rate had improved from last year, they had improved their employment rate and their median LSAT and GPA had stayed consistent with last year. Finally, they suggested that prospective students read a diverse set of magazines that ranked law schools. For example, PreLaw Magazine, which ranks individual specialties within law schools gave the law school an A+ in Health Law, an A+ in International Law, an A+ in IP Law, an A in Business Law, and an A- in Public Interest Law. These rankings are based on the objective criteria including number of courses, number of professors, number of clinics, concentrations, moot court success, having a journal and hosting programs in each specialty area. Weatherhead School of Management rose eight spots since last year, placing them at 22nd this year. However the full-time Master of Business Administration degree was 77th in 2018, 55th in 2019 and is ranked at 74th in 2020. The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing has two programs that are ranked: the Masters and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees. They stand at 16th and 13th, respectively, this year.

This past week, engineering students affiliated with the Humanitarian Design Corps (HDC) at Case Western Reserve University spent their spring break traveling to Costa Rica to continue their involvement with the province of Guanacaste through the development of a water pipeline that will greatly improve the community’s quality of life. HDC, a part of the organization Engineers Without Borders (EWB), helps to advance both the learning experiences of its participants and the development of the world by encouraging its participants to consider worldwide issues such as clean water, sanitation and sustainability and educating them on these issues. While the HDC is affiliated with the EWB, a national organization, HDC has more flexibility in selecting projects and commitments that are valuable to its students. The work of HDC in Costa Rica is only one of three international projects; students are also currently working on initiatives in Malawi and the Dominican Republic. The HDC became involved with the province of Guanacaste in Costa Rica through Kurt Rhoads, an associate professor of civil engineering at CWRU. The Costa Rica initiative, which began in July 2016, has consisted of three different trips to the Latin American country since the project’s launch in January 2017. The pipeline itself was created in March 2018, but the HDC team returned to Costa Rica over spring break in order to repair issues with the pipe’s infrastructure, test the water quality and add length to the pipeline with the purpose of tracking and evaluating the amount of water consumed by the village. The organization’s work is particularly important because of its interdisciplinary nature: in addition to the engineering components of the project, the students involved in Costa Rica were compelled to combine their foreign language skills with their work on the pipeline. While many of the students did not speak Spanish, they acquired language skills along the way that helped them to communicate with the residents of Guanacaste, many of whom housed the students working on the pipeline. Even after the Costa Rica pipeline is completed, the HDC hopes to continue to be involved with the residents of the village. Throughout their time in Costa Rica, students in the group have become close to their hosts and maintain social media relationships with the residents.

News

A&E

Opinion

Sports

pg. 4 NYT columnist speaks at CWRU

pg. 8 Steven Wright visits Cleveland

pg. 10 Money in college admissions

pg. 15 Baseball’s offense thrives

Courtesy of Flickr/Denacipriano The School of Law, pictured above, fell to 71st in the rankings. Other graduate programs rose in the rankings.

Lev Pearlman

Contributing Reporter


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The Observer, Volume L, Issue 22, 3/22/19 by The Observer - Issuu